COMPLEX IDENTITIES
I. A Revealing Misunderstanding
Now, I intend to furnish a first analysis of the dialogue between Tony, Luca and Paolo during the dinner at Tony and Daniel's home67. Luca and Paolo, since their arrival, had been teasing the presents in various ways. They were the most lively among us, often recalling the general attention on their pranks. Since they had come as friends of Matteo, no one knew them. I had met them only once before.
Considering this, some people felt that Luca and Paolo were giving themselves too much freedom of action, and that they were not behaving too nicely and respectfully.
In their dialogue with Tony, they used a series of jokes that offended him, even if, I have to say, at the time, I did not realize that could have happened.
The perceptions of the participants, about what was going on that evening, are extremely important. Luca and Paolo thought that they were just being funny. They did not realize at all that Tony was perceiving them as offensive. Prove of this is that, when they were told a few days later, they personally and spontaneously apologized with Tony and assured him that they did not mean it.
The women present, perceived their jokes as not funny and sexists. The Italian ones, Roberta and I, also perceived a stereotyping of the Southern Italians. We have to remember, thought, that Matteo, their best friend, is Southern Italian, and Paolo himself is half Southern Italian. No offense could really have been meant even in this
67 See the Introduction for a description of the participants and setting.
106
case. Tony, finally, perceived their words as offensive not so much as a Southern Italian, but as an Italian American
Let's start from the beginning. Inside the dinner, I have chosen in particular ten minutes, which I found to be the central point of the misunderstanding. This starts with a name-calling: rigatoni and maccaroni instead of Iaccarino:
LUC: Tony maccaroni.68 ( . )
MAT: Rigatoni69
LUC: Rigatoni¿70 what's- what's your last name¿
(1.0) TON: Iaccarino.
Plays with words are the more difficult to do in another language. What for Paolo and Luca was just a joke, for Tony was a challenge to show his ability with the language. Tony is usually eager to talk Italian, but during this dinner he spoke Italian less and less, to the point of talking only English (we saw in Chapter 1, when talking about language, that this could we a way to enhance an identification as American).
68 "Maccaroni" is pronounced with a parodistic imitation of an English accent and spelling, instead of using the Italian accent and spelling "Maccheroni".
69 Alberto corrects Giovanni's word from "maccaroni" to "rigatoni". At the beginning of the evening, Alberto had already said that he was thinking of doing a film. In it the protagonist would be called
"Rigatoni". "Rigatoni" is not a common family name in Italy (to my knowledge). It has humoristic connotations, being also the name of a kind of pasta. "Maccheroni" is also a kind of pasta. Though in this case there is a slight pejorative sense in the word. A shade of meaning, connected probably to the fact that a derived adjective, "maccheronico,” means "vulgar".
70 Now he pronounces "Rigatoni" with a faked English accent.
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He later told me that in primary school he had been used to this kind of jokes. To a name-calling as "Tony maccaroni" he could have answered: "yes, your mother’s big fat phony". But what to answer in Italian? He felt he could not but loose this challenge (see Appendix D). Immediately after, Luca asks if he is Italian, to which Tony answers with a "yes":
LUC: IACCARI::NO so you are italo- italo italian.
TON: \\yes:::71
\\(TON ==> LUC and sits back in his place. All others ==> TON & LUC)
Here we could ask what does it means this statement for the two parties. Luca and Paolo do not seem to really take it seriously. In fact, later on they will ask again.
To them then, Tony's affirmation of being Italian means that somewhere in his ancestry there was an Italian. To Tony it means that he feels to belong to the "Italian people". Following, Paolo and Luca first find out that the Iaccarino are from Neaples, then they start a series of jokes by imitating the Neapolitan language:
LUC: fro[m where.
TON: [in Naples =
PAO: = (original/ho really) = TON: = Sorrento72.
PAO: no Na[ples no
71 In the way he says "yes" there is a slight overtone of nuisance. Tony is evidently starting to be tired of Giovanni's pranks.
72 Nice, medium size city, south of Neaples, on the coast.
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LUC: \\HA::: MARADONA si meglio e Pele':.74
\\(LUC ==> TON, moves left hand back and forth)
Ha::: Maradona, you are better than Pele' \\(0.50)
\\(laughing)
LUC: \\Ha::: Surriento ha:::
\\(Bends forward. TON oscillates on the chair and looks away from LUC, toward the others)
\\(1.00)
73 In this and other following words, the Neapolitan accent is imitated. Notice also, that Giovanni is not from Naples. He makes an approximate imitation of that language. This is a common way to tease or joke in Italy.
74 Again he imitates the Neapolitan speech. His voice shows extreme enthusiasm. Maradona, used to play soccer in Neaples’ soccer team. When he arrived in it, around ten years ago, it aroused many hopes in the Neapolitans to win the national championship. This phrase became then a common sing-song, comparing Maradona to the great Brazilian champion, Pele'. Today, the phrase can still be used for teasing.
109 (0.65)
LUC: \\mori mori.75
\\(LUC ==> his plate. TON ==> PAO)
you die, you die or Mori, Mori
Luca is known among his friends for being a very good imitator of several Italian accents. Often they request and enjoy his performance. Of course, this was not known to Tony, who again perceives them as part of the same challenge. This time he has been called to testify the truth of his being Italian and Neapolitan, by speaking the Neapolitan language, by answering them in that same code. He felt that he was tested on his belonging to the Italian group (see Appendix D).
Luca and Paolo pick up this joke again and again. At each of these starts, we can see that Tony has a slightly embarrassed reaction. He smiles forcefully, bends his upper body away from Luca, and makes an attempt to change the argument of the conversation, or change the focus from talking about himself, to talking about Luca or Paolo:
PAO&LUC: O SARRACINO!
(0.5)
75 It is also a very famous way of saying, in Italy, the phrase "vedi Napoli e poi mori" that means "you see Neaples and then you can die". The word "mori" is the more common pronunciation of the word
"muori" (you die) in Central-Southern Italy. With this pronunciation, though, the phrase becomes ambiguous, since "Mori" could be intended as the name of a place (especially to the Northern hear). In this case the meaning would be "you see Naples and then you see Mori.” In the first case, this proverb means that Neaples is so beautiful, that after having seen it, a person may die happily. Many Italians, though, accept the second meaning and believe in the existence of a little town called Mori, just south of Neaples, and having incredible beauty. Such a city does not exist.
110 PAO: \\O Iaccarino!
\\(PAO ==> TON, who is still bending away and smiling forcefully)
\\(1.7)
\\( laughing)
TON: ex- so your accent is much better than (mine)¿
LUC: Yeah I am from the North TON: \\right (.) where are you from.
\\(TON moves and ==> LUC)
PAO: O Sarracino LUC: O SARRACINO
PAO: Tutte le femmine fa innammura' TON: \\.hhhhh hhhhh.
\\(bends forward over his plate, visibly unconfortable)
PAO: \\Trasite o non trasite =
\\(TON bends forward toward PAO and smiles forcefully)
LUC: = [cosa vuol dire, andate?]
What does it mean? Go?
VAL: [Hhh hh hh tra(h)si(h)te]
PAO: entrate come in/enter LUC: hu entrate entrate =
hu come in, come in
111 PAO: = [trasite] o non trasite.
TON: [( )]
JEN: hu hu
TON: so you lived in Naples? = PAO: = yeah
PAO: = O Sa[racino \\( ) e'.]
LUC: [ \\((whistling))]
\\(LUC repeats the movement. TON is shaking his head positively and smiling, evidently unconfortable)
PAO: O Sarra[cin- ( ( groan like sound ) ) ] = LUC: [O SARRACINO! O SARRACINO!]
PAO: = TUTTE LE FE[MMINE FA INNAMMURA']
LUC: \\[MMINE FA INNAMMURA']
\\(TON bends away from LUC)
When Italians from different regions are getting acquainted, it is quite common to spend time discussing each other culture. This dinner was no exception in that sense. What may be unusual, is the claim of who Paolo and Luca perceived as an American, to be Italian. As the conversation passes to cooking, Paolo asks if Tony's mother is Italian. This shows that he had not taken too seriously Tony's previous affirmation to be Italian from Neaples. I think the first time Luca and Paolo were asking about ancestry. This time they are asking about a closer descent:
112 PAO: = your- your mother is Italian¿ [( )
?: [ h hh hh hh hh hh
TON: [my- both of them are
[Italian.
PAO: [<second generation of- or::: first generation =
TON: = no my parents were: ((clearing throat)) \\my dad's from Naples, my mom's
\\(bends toward PAO)
from Calabria76 =
PAO: =Oh so \\they are really Italian [where were they] born=
\\(TON shakes head positively)
LUC: [ De CALABRIA ]
from Calabria
PAO: = (where) they were born.
TON: They were born and lived in Italy77. PAO: (was li[ke-)
LUC: [what [(city)-
TON: [I was- but I was born here.
LUC: So what city in Calabria.
TON: Reggio78.
76 Other region in Southern Italy.
77 In Tony's voice there is now a little nuisance.
78 Reggio Calabria, the principal city of the region, near the channel that divides the peninsula from Sicily.
113 LUC: Re:ggio.
PAO: Ma parli Italiano allora.
But then you can talk Italian TON: si.
yes
Still, Paolo hypothesize a first or second generation for the parents. Here, by first generation he probably means "born in Italy", while to Tony it means "the first generation to be born in America. This explains why Tony's voice sounds so bored: he feels it redundant, to have to answer the same question again and again, while, from Paolo and Luca's point of view, I think, they have been asking different questions.
The final revelation is when Paolo asks him if he talks Italian. Of course Tony does. Though, we can notice again how he has been talking English throughout the dialogue, an unexpected behavior, given that he usually likes to "exercise" his Italian.
I think that, by avoiding Italian, he was trying to avoid that confrontation, that test of identity to which Luca and Paolo seemed to call him. Talking in Italian could have shown his American accent. When Tony finally talks Italian, he does it feigning an excessively marked American accent:
TON: Un poco (.) \\parlo (.) un[o parola79] hh hh hh hh hh =
\\(puts his fingers together to reinforce the idea of "a little")
A little, I talk one word
79 Tony is now imitating the way of talking Italian of an American who knows very little Italian.
Indeed his knowledge of Italian is much higher, which is demonstrated by the fact that he can make such an imitation. In particular, notice the pronunciation of the "r" in the American way, without the
"trill".
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PAO: [capisci ( )]
you understand ( )
In this way, Tony is putting in front of Luca and Paolo the kind of stereotype of American identity that he feels they are trying to impose on him. The silliness of it becomes immediately visible, and Tony seems to have been able to answer the challenge of identification. Though for Paolo and Luca, for whom such a challenge has never existed, Tony's words are just an invitation to more ethnic imitations. They end up submerging Tony again, and he goes back to a defensive position, again trying to divert the conversation. Finally, Tony is able to take distance from Luca and Paolo and start a conversation with Jennifer. A little later, anyway, Luca and Paolo are able to recall him again:
LUC: Avevi ventidue anni, il momento migliore, da quella volta \\
\\(descending whistling, left hand up then falling down)
You was twenty-two, the best moment, from that time PAO: Ec[co ( )] \\raggiunge il picco e poi (dopo \\un po')=
\\(hand up, imitating LUC's gesture) \\(gesture80)
There, ( ) it reaches the top and then (after a while) TON: \\[No, ero-]
\\(smiles forcefully)
No, I was-
PAO: = O Saracino \\( ) e'. \\
80 Right hand makes a rotatory movement. In Italian it means scarcity or lack of something.
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\\(descending with the hand) \\(LUC repeats the movement. TON is shaking his head positively and smiling, evidently unconfortable)
This time, their joking becomes even more heavy, and Tony is evidently uncomfortable. This probably, they start to sense, and Luca finally changes subject by asking: "Did you see Caro Diario?"